A sessions court in Chhattisgarh’s Durg district has disposed of the bail application of two Kerala nuns arrested in an alleged forced conversion and human trafficking case, reasoning that the matter should be heard by the National Investigation Agency (NIA) court in Chhattisgarh’s Bilaspur district. A detailed court order is awaited.
Speaking with reporters, the secretary of the Durg Advocates Association, Ravi Shankar Singh, said, “The bail application was filed in the sessions court on Tuesday. Today, the judge was on leave, so the Additional District Judge heard the matter. The judge said in one line that he does not have the authority to listen to the bail application because this (matter) comes under the NIA Act and the NIA court is in Bilaspur. The lawyer for the accused, however, argued that his clients are in jail in Durg. The judge then said he is disposing of the application. The court told the police that they have 15 days to write to the central government to handle this case in an NIA court. This means the nuns will have to remain in jail.”
The nuns’ lawyer, Tamaskar Tondon, had said on Tuesday, “The FIR registered by the Government Railway Police in Durg is based on mere suspicion that a crime has happened. The GRP have not done any preliminary inquiry; hence, the FIR is quashable. Further, the women (the nuns are accused of trafficking) are all adults, and their family members did not have an issue with them going away for work. Also, the FIR is registered under pressure by a woman seen in the video moving in and out of the police station.”
On Wednesday, Tondon said, “The court order is awaited, but the judge said that looking at the offences, the NIA court must hear the matter, and permission needs to be taken from the central government. But we argued why the nuns should be kept in jail all this time when this is not their fault.”
Rajkumar Tiwari, also a lawyer for the accused, said, “The bail has been disposed of as the court observed that section 143 (trafficking of a person) is triable by an NIA court and this court does not have jurisdiction. Now, the state or central government committee… will decide whether the matter will go to an NIA court or not. Till then, the case will remain with GRP. As our clients are in custody, we have two options. We will either go to an NIA court or the High Court. This is because if the matter is related to an NIA court, then our clients must get relief till then. We are discussing whether to approach High Court with a writ petition.”
The nuns, Preeti Marry and Vandana Francis, and one more person, Sukaman Mandavi, were arrested last Friday at the Durg railway station in Chhattisgarh on allegations that they were involved in forceful conversion and human trafficking.
The FIR, registered under sections of the Chhattisgarh Religious Freedom Act and the Immoral Traffic (Prevention) Act, was based on a complaint by a local Bajrang Dal worker, who alleged that the accused forcibly converted three women from Narayanpur district and were attempting to traffic them.
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The arrests have blown up into a major political flashpoint not only in Chhattisgarh but also in Kerala and Delhi, where Left Democratic Front and United Democratic Front MPs from Kerala held separate protests outside Parliament.
On Wednesday, Brinda Karat, a member of CPI (M) politburo, tried to meet the nuns. She said later, “This (persecution of minorities) is going on everywhere in the country. Even during Bhupesh Baghel’s rule, these incidents were happening. We do not see it from a political lens. This is a women’s issue. The women (the nuns are accused of trafficking) are adults. Why do they need to give a permission letter for going with anyone anywhere for work?”
Former Chhattisgarh Chief Minister Baghel called it “the politics of polarisation”. “Our party’s general secretary has written a letter to Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Chhattisgarh Chief Minister, and we also raised the issue in Lok Sabha. In whichever states the BJP is in power, they target the minorities there for the sake of votes,” Baghel wrote on X.
